So Close
by Lioness's Heart
Summary: There are reasons behind everything - thoughts that do not always reach the surface but stay with them for a time. Those thoughts are part of who they are. Challenge response including Snow/Charming, Emma, and the Huntsman.


**Disclaimer: _Once Upon A Time_ and all characters and places contained within do not belong to me. **

**So, this was for a challenge on another website (boards . theforce . net) in the Non-Star Wars Fanfiction - it's similar to the iPod Shuffle Challenge that was going around a couple of years ago, where we shuffled our iPods/MP3 players and took five out of the first ten songs and use them to write five drabbles/flashfics between a hundred and a thousand words. Let me know what you think and review - I'd love to know what y'all think of the characterization and everything.  
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><p><strong><em>A Demon's Fate<em> – Within Temptation - Prince James/Charming**

_What have you done?_ It echoed in James's mind for an hour after King George had shouted it at him. _You have destroyed our kingdom! You pitiful, lovesick pup! You've thrown all this away for a woman who does not even love you!_

James, even when months had passed, could not think of himself using the name of his twin brother. He could not forget the day he had taken on his brother's identity. He could not forget meeting Snow White that had followed so soon after he had become Prince James.

He could not get her out of his head. No matter what he did, he could not get her out of his head. He knew she loved him as he loved her, even if she had said she had not. He _knew_. It was true love. He just knew.

He was a free man now – Abigail had her Frederick returned to her and she had been adamant about setting him free, even if it had been in defiance of her father. Abigail always got what she wanted and this was no different. Now he could have what he wanted. In a matter of days, he had lost hope and gained it again. His mind was a flurry of motion – elation prevented him from thinking clearly.

This thrill shattered again when Red told him she never came back. He had to find her. He would always find her. Fear for her safety and their love would lead him to her. They would. They had to. He would _always_ find her, no matter the consequences.

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><p><strong><em>Sticks and Stones <em>– Aly & AJ - The Huntsman**

They thought they were tough. They thought they understood what it was to have honor, to be a true hunter. They were wrong. They were harsh, brutal men who understood nothing of the honor of the creatures they hunted and killed for _fun_.

Every time he killed, it was to survive. He honored the noble creatures who gave their lives so that he could live. The mocking struck a nerve, however, and if there was one thing that the Huntsman was not tolerant of, that was it. They would never understand. That was why he shunned the company of humans for that of his real family. His brother wolf understood far more than the supposedly intelligent humans ever would.

They could say whatever they wanted; he would never allow himself to sink to their level. He had better things to do.

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><p><strong><em>The Lie<em> – Matthew West - Emma**

There was a time in Emma's life when she convinced herself that it didn't hurt. She knew it was a lie, but it felt good at the time. It felt good to believe that she wasn't alone, that she wasn't worthless. That time disappeared faster than she could have imagined when she was sent to yet another foster home when there was no longer room for her where she had been.

Those memories haunted her as she looked at Henry staring up at her, his eyes wide and gleaming with pride as she relayed to him that his father had been a hero. What a lie. His father had never been a hero. Henry would hate her when he found out that she had lied to him. He would hate her for telling him that his father had been someone who had given his all to save others.

She had to convince herself that it was better this way. Then he never had to know the pain that she had. He would never have to know that his father had abandoned them and had never looked back. He never had to know that his father never knew about him because he had walked out on Emma, not that he had died in the line of duty. Henry would never have to feel as abandoned as she had for twenty-eight years.

Emma just hoped that it would stay that way. All she wanted was to protect him.

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><p><strong><em>Remember (Me)<em> – Josh Groban - Prince James/Charming**

James could feel the cold in his fingertips as he watched the Queen's guards breaking down the door to the tree. A smile touched his lips when he saw that she was gone. She would find them. She would save them.

He was on the edge of consciousness, so far gone that he could not do anything, when he heard Snow's voice in the distance. He hated hearing her in pain, but there was nothing he could do. His body was like lead, sinking fast and forever. He wished her could comfort her, to tell her that he would never really be gone.

Then it all disappeared.

He woke in a completely unfamiliar bed. He was surrounded by tubes and beeping machines. Where was he? Who was he? What in the world was going on? All he could think of was that soft voice reading to him. The Troll Bridge. That was the only disjointed thought that flitted past the beautiful sound of the only voice he remembered. He had to get to the Troll Bridge.

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><p><strong><em>What Hurts the Most<em> – Rascal Flatts - Snow White**

Snow hated walking away. She hated telling James that she did not love him – she did love him! She wanted nothing more than to be with him forever. No matter how hard she tried, she could not get him out of her head. His brilliantly blue eyes appeared every time she closed her eyes, leaving her already shattered heart to be ground into dust as she slipped out of the castle again.

She had never believed in true love at first sight. When she had been a child, it had been but fairy stories that her father had told her – a wonderful sentiment, but it meant nothing after her mother died. Snow had been a very serious child after her mother's untimely death. Fairy stories meant little to her.

How wrong she had been. The moment she laid eyes on Prince James, he had stolen her heart, even if she had not realized it until well after he had trapped her in a net, saved her life, and nearly died because of her. She had hated watching him walk away when he returned to his castle before, but nothing hurt as much as this. Snow had broken his heart and she knew it. She had broken her heart when she had looked into his eyes and any words she had wanted to say to him had died in the all-encompassing love he felt for her. She could not risk his life. Not when she had a cure and there was a chance for him to live.

Walking away was the hardest thing Snow White had ever had to do, but she knew she had to. She had to protect him. It was better this way.


End file.
